


When the Seoul Wanders

by The_Wandering_Seoul (JayneRogue)



Category: EXO (Band), GOT7, SEVENTEEN (Band), 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: F/M, Fanmeet, Friendship, It was not meant to make sense, Spirits, Virtual Reality, Work of my brain, dream - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-23
Updated: 2016-10-08
Packaged: 2018-07-26 04:38:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7560403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JayneRogue/pseuds/The_Wandering_Seoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Sometimes, your soul wanders into unexpected territory and you just gotta write it down.</i>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>Just a place for me to share some of the weird dreams my mind conjures up at night, starring K-idols that I may or may not have been fangirling over too much. Perhaps it is my mind's goal to embarrass me to death, even in sleep.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Dream #1

Group: EXO  
Members mentioned: Chanyeol, D.O., Kai

Date: Sometime near the very end of August 2015

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She walked up the steps to the small room where the fan meet was to be held, too busy leading her nervous and excited friend by the hand to feel nervous herself. She turned and the first smile she sees is D.O.'s brilliant grin splitting his face, and she felt the corners of her mouth twitching too in response. The rest of EXO was there, and all of them were grinning with various degrees of devilishness.

She did a quick sweep and felt her heart sadden a little. On hindsight, not all of them were here; Lay wasn't here, no doubt promoting in China again. She wished he was. Besides being top on her bias list among current members, Lay would be able to help them communicate so much easier since she spoke Mandarin too.

After the customary greetings and introductions, the fans and members were allowed to mingle and interact. She found herself talking to D.O. and Chanyeol, both smiling brilliantly and the latter, a little knowingly. She blushed and tried to focus on D.O. instead as he talked excitedly and animatedly, even if they both knew they couldn't understand each other. Still, they did try.

They managed to communicate with a mixture of sign language and limited English, talking about everything and nothing. School, friends, EXO, life in general. And yet, even as her attention was very much on D.O. and his enthusiasm, she knew her attention was also split by at least half, as a certain tall member, who was lounging by the edge of the stairs, kept accidentally-on-purpose tearing her eyes away from D.O. Like when he would just sway randomly to music only he could hear, or when he would shuffle slightly or gesture animatedly in response to whatever D.O. said. And whenever her eyes flickered involuntarily to him, he would smirk flirtatiously at her, and she'd have to resist the urge to roll her eyes at him.

After goodness-knows-how-long, the event manager, standing in the middle of the room, raised his voice to call everyone's attention, about to explain the next fan meet activity. D.O. turned to pay attention, and she'd began to do that too, except she saw arms waving frantically in her peripheral vision, and when she turned she barely had time to think before her hands were shooting out to catch Chanyeol by the sleeve as he nearly fell off the stairs. She tugged hard at his sleeve to pull him back up, and it was in the instant that he straightened back up effortlessly that she realised he'd faked the fall, and she made sure to return his winning grin with a very pointed, haha-very-funny-not roll of the eyes.

All this cost precious attention, so that when she'd finally made her point with Chanyeol, it was with the result that she had not heard a single thing the event manager said.

She gave Chanyeol another annoyed look, which, despite herself, turned into an endearing grin, all because Chanyeol was giving her a you-know-you-wanna-laugh-too look. Throwing up her hands in exasperation, she went to take a seat a little way away from the group as she realised what was going on; fan service interactions with "oppa". She wasn't the type to fangirl right in front of her idols, and anyway, she'd be too embarrassed to take part in the kind of fan service being prepared, so she opted out.

Sitting comfortably on the carpeted floor, a good distance away from the main event, she smiled as she watched the fangirls squeal and hyperventilate at the fan service. She'd nearly forgotten how much she loved watching other people fangirl over their idols. Especially since some fangirls were unimaginably adorable.

Someone sat down next to her, unusually close. She turned to find Kai smiling a could-be-innocent-or-could-be-flirtatious smile at her, as if daring her to question why he was here. She didn't. She turned back to the front to watch the fan service, and after awhile so did Kai. Just like that, they sat there in companionable silence, watching the event go on.

She stole occasional glances at Kai, wondering what he was doing here. Shouldn't he be in line too, with the others? Do the other fangirls not miss him? She turned to look at him again, maybe ask him about sitting here, but instead she came face to face with the wooden doors of her built-in cabinet, and suddenly gravity wasn't from below but from behind, and she wasn't sitting but standing -- or no, wait, she was lying down. Her eyes were sticky, refusing to open completely, and her movements slow yet gradually picking up pace.

And then she remembered what happened, and she smiled, blushing somewhat, as she rubbed her eyes, sat up, and stretched in her much-too-short pyjamas. A shy smile still gracing her lips, she made her bed and left the room to wash up and get ready for a new day.

A day that would always be laced with sweetness whenever she remembered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has got to be my first time dreaming of a k-idol. Or at least, the first time I remembered. It was......an interesting experience. Also very......embarrassing, kinda? But it was nice, I suppose. Also, since this is a dream, obviously a lot of parts would not make sense. I've done my best to rationalise and logic-alise things, but there's only so much I can do without changing the whole dream, and since this is really meant to be a record for myself for future nostalgia (so called), I hope you understand and just go with it! Thanks.
> 
> P.S.: One more thing I forgot to mention! I'm not against Lay promoting in China, but perhaps because around the time I had this dream, Lay was very actively promoting in China, so I got so used to always seeing recent pictures and then feeling that pang of disappointment at counting only eight (I wanted to see his face too!) that it translated into my dreams. After all, as the Mandarin saying goes, "what you think of in the day will be what you dream of in the night" (roughly translated). Kekeke, in future posts I'll probably point it out if I have more of these "real life creeps into dreams" plot points.


	2. Dream #2

Group: Seventeen  
Members mentioned: S. Coups

Date: 20/07/2016 (Wed)

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Just go to sleep already!" she laughed at her friends, urging them to quit fooling around and actually doing something productive. Such as _sleep_.

With grins on their faces, they complied, most trudging off to their rooms and her roommates to their beds instead. Grinning along, exchanging the last banter of the day with her friends, she flopped back down onto her bed, lying on her front, and peered down to peek at the bunk bellow hers.

Her eyes met the most beautiful pair of eyes she had ever seen, and she stared, transfixed, as they too searched her face.

After what felt like an eternity, a small smile broke out on Seungcheol's face. "Your nose has gotten sharper," he observed. "But otherwise you're still the same."

She hummed and smiled at him, a lopsided grin of giddy happiness, not unlike a schoolgirl with her first crush. And still she was staring at him, and he was staring at her, and neither was willing to break eye contact. There was just _something_ about smiling at each other mutely. Something that was simple yet filled her heart with joy, something that made the corners of her mouth quirk at the light-hearted joy in his gaze.

Vaguely, the part of her brain not mesmerised by Seungcheol registered the voice of one of her other roommates. "I'm turning off the lights! Goodnight, everyone!"

They were still grinning stupidly at each other as the light was switched off with a _click_.

Still smiling in the darkness, she rolled back onto bed and settled down to go to sleep. The smile never left her face.

When she was next jolted awake by the beginning notes of GOT7's "Good", she was no longer at the campsite, but safely at home, in a familiar bed, under familiar sheets, the all too familiar underlying feeling of unwillingness weighing her down as she realised she had to get up and get ready to go to college.

But then she remembered the twinkling eyes, the beautiful smile, the overwhelming joy, and suddenly, college didn't seem so bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is _very_ short, I'm aware. Probably 'cause I've been very tired recently, so the parts of my dream that I do remember isn't very long _or_ creative. But hey, the thing about these mental experiences: you gotta be there to truly experience it before you understand how every single second is precious and special. All I can say is......Coups has been creeping up my bias list (and I don't even yet _have_ a bias list; I'm still resisting the call of the Carat fandom for as long as I can) in a very unfair way. His beautiful eyes have no mercy on my hearteu, ugh.


	3. Dream #3

Group: BTS  
Members mentioned: Rap Monster

Date: 23/07/2016

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She remembered laughing with friends as they squeezed into spaces too small, exploring places off limits, and racing around like the free spirits that they were. She remembered dancing across dew and grass, getting up to mischief, and fleeing the elders with glee.

Yet, she couldn't remember why she felt attracted to him.

She had been racing across their field with one of her friends when they spotted the crowd of humans at the other end, where concrete had been paved atop the ground. Of course, it was only natural for them to want to investigate, so naturally they veered left, towards the humans.

The humans were arranged in lines; rows and columns that form a formation of sorts, covering the entire expanse of the grey concrete slab. They faced different directions, all facing outwards from the centre of the formation, and they appeared to be practising a routine of sorts, moving their bodies in sync with music that blared out of a speaker somewhere.

Giggling, she and her friend bent down to peer at the human closest to them, a male with silver-gray hair styled up, sporting glasses and wearing dark blue clothes, as dark as the midnight sky. Theoretically, he wasn't supposed to see them. No human ever saw them.

But then his eyes flicked up and stopped on them, and an expression of annoyance flickered over his face for the briefest of moments, and she felt a grin creep onto her face.

So he was one of those who _saw_. She'd only ever heard of them before, like distant news of a myth, carried by the whisper of the wind. Eyes lighting up with interest, she called upon the Great Mother, wanting to know more about this human.

Everything on Earth was connected, in some way or another, and it was a matter of tapping into the knowledge of Mother Earth to learn. Unlike humans, who were fascinatingly mundane and unreceptive, spirits were born knowing how to call upon the Great Mother to impart Her knowledge.

 _Kim Namjoon_.

"Kim Namjoon," she repeated, musing over the way the foreign name felt on her lips. Other than the sudden, almost imperceptible clench of his jaw, Kim Namjoon showed no sign of having heard her, staring resolutely forward instead.

So he knows. He knows he can _see_.

She turned to grin mischievously at her friend, who grinned back in response and procured a new pair of glasses out of nowhere. Kim Namjoon ignored them, unmoving in his half crouched position as dictated by whoever was conducting this formation.

She exchanged another glance with her friend and her grin widened before she nodded and her friend swapped Kim Namjoon's glasses with the new pair.

Two things happened at once. Kim Namjoon's arm shot out in a vain attempt to take his glasses back, a sudden wild movement that he abruptly kerbed before he was reprimanded for breaking formation. At the same time, the glasses broke apart in her friend's hands, one leg falling off from the frame as the cellophane tape barely holding it together gave way and fell to the grass under the girls' feet.

She stared at the black plastic lying in the grass before looking back up at him. He had given up his facade and was well and truly glaring at her now. Laughing at his expression, she reached up to adjust the new pair of glasses that rested crookedly on the bridge of his nose.

Kim Namjoon's expression softened slightly, taking on a more surprised quality. Her grin softened too and she flashed him a toothy smile before turning to race away with her friend, leaving the broken glasses lying in the grass behind them and speckled with dew.

Just before she got too far, she looked back. Kim Namjoon was still watching them. Smiling happily, she waved goodbye. Ignoring the questioning look her friend gave her, she smiled to herself and closed her eyes, letting her feet guide her deeper into the forest. The frigid mountain air caressed her arms like the cold breath of Earth, and any other day she would have cartwheeled with glee, but for once, her mind was preoccupied.

All she could think about was the human with the broken glasses.

When she next opened her eyes, however, it was to warmth and darkness, and the earthy smell of the forest was replaced by the familiar scent of her bedroom. Disorientated, it took her a few moments to realise BTS's "Dead Leaves" was blaring from somewhere at an unreasonable volume. Reaching up a hand, she turned off the alarm.

It took her half an hour and a Tumblr post to remember what happened, but when she did, she smiled. Now she knew why she was attracted to the boy with the broken glasses.

She had always been and will always be attracted to the boy with the broken glasses.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be honest, the whole broken glasses thing was _not_ inspired by that time Namjoon broke a pair. It seriously wasn't. Not on a conscious level, anyway; could have been the subconscious. What would I know, right? But anyway, I know that for sure because, in my dream, the pair of broken glasses was my friend's glasses. The joint on his glasses where the right leg is connected to the frame by a screw has been damaged, so the screw can never go in all the way (I would know; I helped him to attempt to fix it thrice). So basically the most anyone can do was to put the screw in and hope it lasts for as long as possible before it falls off again. By the fourth time it fell off, my friend decided to give up and these days he literally wears his glasses with only one leg. It's quite comical. And apparently, it's also such a common sight for me that it made its way into my dreams.
> 
> Anyway, the cellophane tape in the story was added on to make the story flow. Now _that_ was inspired by Namjoon's broken glasses. I laughed for almost a minute when I realised how everything fits so coincidentally and perfectly in my dreams. I'm not ruling out foul play on the part of my subconscious. Of all people, it had to be the God of Destruction. And of all things, it had to be the infamous glasses. And of all ways for it to be broken, it _had_ to be the leg broken off (though it's a different leg).
> 
> And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I say my mind is a genius and I'm a potato. It does all the thinking, not me.


	4. Dream #4

Group: GOT7  
Members mentioned: Yugyeom

Date: 03/10/16 (Mon) 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was at the Game Mall that she met him.

With the new virtual reality game taking the world by storm, it was only natural for her and her friends to cash in together to buy a console each and play the game. After all, as her best friend had reasoned with a wink, it's _for science_.

Everyone in the game starts out in the city, with its tall skyscrapers filled with excitement almost impossible in real life (such as the Bungee Zone -- the only area in the city where you could jump off any height without consequences -- and the Upside Down -- a building in which the laws of physics didn't quite follow that of the real world). The most popular building, however, was -- understandably -- the Game Mall. This was where most of the in-game games (so to speak) were located, and naturally, it was the first place that she and her friends headed to upon arriving.

The Game Mall was designed to essentially mimic a regular old shopping mall in the real world, though it was probably larger on the inside than outside. Instead of shops, however, each unit within the mall was a game, and all one needed to do was enter the "shop" to be transported straight to the game interface.

As a group of gaming friends who often hang out every weekend to play, the Mall was practically heaven.

After maybe a dozen or so games (she lost track of the exact number), she found herself left with only her partner-in-crime by her side, as everyone had scattered off in groups of twos and threes to try out as many games as they could before their five-hour time limit was up. She smiled wryly as she remembered the warning that popped up at the start of the game:

_In consideration of our players' health and safety, and for a generally better gameplay experience, Avantia is only accessible for 5 hours per player per day. Please use your hours wisely. Happy gaming!_

She felt a poke on her left arm and turned to look at her partner-in-crime.

"Hey, how about we go try that DDR game thingy now?" she suggested. "It's been forever since you played DDR, time to bust out those dance moves, eh? I bet virtual reality DDR would be interesting." And, without waiting for a reply, her partner-in-crime began dragging her by the arm in the direction of the game, deaf to her feeble protests of being out of practice. She could only grin sheepishly (and a little helplessly) as she was dragged along by the enthusiastic shorter girl down one floor to the game-shop of the dancing game.

They entered the game-shop together, and suddenly they were floating in space, colours swirling around them in iridescence. The game panel floated right in front of them, waiting patiently for them to choose their options.

Before she could stop her partner-in-crime, the shorter girl threw her a smirk and jumped towards the game panel, tapping away furiously. She barely managed to glimpse her friend choosing the "solo" and "PvP" options, and entering her character name, before suddenly the world around her changed again and she was floating alone in space. As she wondered what was going to happen next, the space next to her warped, twisting and darkening into a vague shape, then a form, then --

A guy materialised about six feet away from her.

As a cool female voice welcomed them to the game and stated the rules and settings of the game, she gave her opponent a quick once over. He was tall, taller than her (who was, herself, considered tall for a girl), and while he may not be the most dashing young man she had ever seen, there was something about him that was very easy on the eyes. He was dressed simply, a black T-shirt with a skull logo on it paired with a leather jacket and ripped skinny jeans (considering what they were about to do, a part of her thanked heavens that this was a virtual world, for the sake of the jeans). Sneakers and a dangling cross earring finished off his look. His hair was a bleached blonde and wavy, tousled in a way that looked more natural than artificial, as if someone had a habit of constantly ruffling his hair, even in this virtual world. He wasn't smiling, which gave him a "brooding rebel teenager" look, and with his tall build and broad shoulders, it almost made him look intimidating.

Her eyes flicked up once more -- almost instinctively -- to take in his face, and their eyes met. Surprise flashed briefly across his eyes, as if he was a child caught stealing cookies, then his lips stretched in a shy, tentative smile.

She wondered if her virtual body had a heart, because if it did, that would explain the feeling of having skipped a beat that she felt in her chest.

"Hi," he spoke up, his voice as shy and gentle as his smile. "Um, the game's starting."

Right, the game. Back to the game.

The virtual dancing game was fairly easy to understand, resembling an Xbox dancing game more than the original DDR game. The players were to mimic the figures moving on screen according to the beat, though bonus points were given if you were creative enough to come up with your own moves that still fit the beat.

After five minutes of non-stop dancing, she was fairly certain she would have been drenched in sweat had her body not been virtual. The results that flashed before them showed her what she already expected: her opponent had won. In her defence, she wasn't a bad dancer, but on top of being out of practice, her opponent was just too good of a dancer. She didn't see much of his dancing, too occupied with her own game (she had her own competitive streak to satisfy), but she saw enough out of the corner of her eyes to know that she was competing against someone way above her in terms of skills.

"Good job," she offered the boy a smile. He grinned back at her as their surroundings faded and was replaced by the walkway outside the game-shop.

"Thanks. You're pretty good, too. That was quite a high score you got," he replied earnestly.

She pulled a face. "I'm out of practice." She eyed him carefully, then couldn't resist adding playfully, "I bet I can beat you if I wasn't."

There was a glint in the boy's eyes as he replied. "Oh, yeah? Wanna battle again tomorrow?"

She tried to smirk at him, but she got a feeling what came out was more of an excited grin than a competitive smirk. "Why not?"

"Same time?" He had the widest smile she had ever seen on his face.

She gave him a matching smile. "You're on."

As she walked away from the game-shop with her partner-in-crime, she couldn't resist glancing back. The boy and his bunch of friends were on the other end of the walkway, having headed in the opposite direction as she and her friend. They looked like a rowdy bunch, play fighting with each other and jumping around even as she looked at them. One of the guys, the one wearing a tank top and a baseball cap, reached up to ruffle the blonde boy's hair.

"So, I see you've made a friend." Her partner-in-crime's voice brought her back to their end of the walkway. She turned to grin at the shorter girl.

"Yeah. We're battling tomorrow again."

She missed the contemplative look the shorter girl gave her, too busy taking in the other games available as she walked past them. "So I've heard. He's a really good dancer, you know, I saw it from outside. Probably can beat everyone from our dance team."

"Yup, wouldn't be surprised," she replied off-handedly, still not looking at her friend. It wasn't until the ensuing silence lasted too long that she finally turned to her friend.

"What?" she blinked at her, bemused by the look on her face.

Her friend took her time answering.

"......nothing. I just didn't think you would be so okay with the idea of someone beating all of us at dance."

"But he's good! You just said so yourself."

"......I did. Yeah. Yeah, he's good."

She pulled a face at the shorter girl, not really wanting to question her too much about her weird reaction. "C'mon, we're wasting time. There's a game somewhere around here that I wanted to try......" And without waiting for an answer, she dragged her friend with her deeper into the mall in search of the next game to play.

* * *

The next day, she nearly beat the blonde boy, losing only by around 100 points. Yet for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to scowl; if anything, her grin was wider than ever as she asked for another rematch. The boy agreed easily, even going as far as to challenge her by agreeing to reveal his real name should she win. In retaliation, she agreed to the same thing should he win the next match.

She told him her real name after their third match. After seven more frustrating days (in which her friends would later swear she had never trained as diligently in dance before or after), she won his name in their tenth match.

_Kim Yugyeom._

Still they continued their dance battles every day. Their friends went from strangers to acquaintances to friends, and they themselves went from friendly rivals to friends to best friends -- and perhaps a little more than that.

She was now used to the excitement that floods her body at the sight of him, though it doesn't make it any less exhilarating. She hasn't known him for long, and she's still slowly getting to truly know him, yet it feels like she had known him since forever. They click, like a key fitting its lock, and somehow, they get along as if they had been meant to.

It didn't take long for them to be attached at the hip. She found out that Yugyeom was technically older than her, yet the childish way that he acted around her did little to convince her of the fact. She herself wasn't the most mature girl on the block, and as a result, they now filled the hallways of the Game Mall with laughter and playful shrieking every time they hung out in the mall.

It was a mark of how -- for lack of a better word -- _smitten_ they were with each other that they never saw the looks other players threw them as they made a ruckus down the hallways. They barely even registered the knowing looks their friends exchanged, too busy teasing each other and too naive to think of their relationship as anything beyond friendship.

But of course, as happens to all fairytales, reality comes a-knocking to shatter the illusion of happily-ever-after.

Yugyeom failed to turn up one day. She waited faithfully outside the dance game-shop, yet neither he nor his friends appeared. Frowning, she hesitated to leave. Sure, the game had a friend system that could be used to call friends who were not in your immediate vicinity, so she didn't actually need to wait at their usual meeting place. But Yugyeom had never been late, never mind absent. She scrolled through her friends list, finding Yugyeom's name in grey: offline. A little troubled, she finally allowed her friends to drag her off.

Yugyeom never appeared after that. It was as if he had disappeared, which wasn't actually all that surprising, considering this was a virtual world. She tried not to let it bother her, but she knew her friends were aware of her constant, almost habitual scroll through her friends list immediately after she logged on, then every ten minutes or so after. And every single time, she was met with the same grey font.

For the sake of her friends, she kept her disappointment and longing under control. Yet sometimes, as she roamed the Game Mall with her friends, she couldn't help the way she missed him. She couldn't help remembering the jokes and pranks they played on each other (and occasionally, their friends) in each hallway, couldn't help remembering the chase through the first floor hallways that started with god-knows-what but ended with aggressive tickle attacks. And some days, when the tugging in her chest was especially strong, she could almost feel him behind her again, broad frame enveloping her in a back hug that was the warmest and safest she had ever known.

As the end of her five hours approached, she found herself hanging out by herself at the canteen in the Game Mall. The food served was, of course, virtual, and in no way nourished her living body. In any case, she didn't really want to eat; she was merely here for the memories. Memories of bickering over the best pasta choices to go with bolognese sauce, of a food fight erupting over burritos and soda. Overwhelmed with nostalgia, she was staring at the clean, untouched surface of _their table_ when her vision went dark.

She opened her eyes to reality, and suddenly too many memories flooded her mind, too many thoughts, too many concepts, each and every one as familiar as it was foreign. Then she realised; no, _she_ was the foreign one. She, the girl who knew the warmth of Yugyeom, the girl whose life a certain shy boy had waltzed into and made himself at home, was the foreign persona in the mind of a girl who could only watch Kim Yugyeom from afar, through silver screens so cold to the touch.

It was a bittersweet thought, one that she filed away carefully with the memory of that warm, warm back hug in a corner of her mind, a corner she vowed to never forget. Shaking off the weight in her heart, she slipped off her bed to begin a new day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woah, this turned out to be longer than I thought. Way longer than anyone would have thought, come to that. The dream actually wasn't that long, but I needed to write in filler stuff for things that wasn't exactly _shown_ in the dream, per se, but was more kind of _felt_ instead, if you get me. Also, I suppose my writing streak turned up for the party, too, and made the whole thing a lot more -- romantic? Love story-ish? -- than it really is. Honestly, it started with me meeting Gyeom outside a game, then fast forwarded to us being extremely close with each other, then the back hug, then he disappeared, then I woke up. It was, as I said, pretty bittersweet.


End file.
